Beyond Hunger - Formerly known as the Oak Park and River Forest Food Pantry

Hunger never takes a holiday! – “We are here for those who are hungry” is the slogan of Beyond Hunger. In its effort to provide hunger relief, this group provided nutritious groceries, produce, meat and dairy products to 15,873 local families last year. Each month volunteers donate over 1,400 hours of labor helping to feed their hungry neighbors.

NEXT VOLUNTEER DATE ON SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6 - St. Catherine of Siena-St. Lucy and St. Giles CCW has pledged to provide 5 volunteers to assist at the Beyond Hunger Food Pantry on the first Saturday of each month from 8:30 AM to 10:45 AM on the first shift at their bi-weekly food pantry service. For the Holiday months (November and December), the shift hours may be extended by 30 minutes. Clients remain in their cars while the valets load pre-packed boxes of food items containing a sampling from all the various food stations. We no longer interface directly with the clients. As Shopping Assistants, our job now entails gathering food items from the various food stations and packing them in large boxes for the valets to deliver to the clients. We also are sometimes asked to bag bread items and vegetables.

The Food Pantry is located at First United Church on the corner of Lake Street and Kenilworth Avenue in Oak Park, IL. The Food Pantry provides hunger relief, counseling and nutritional counseling to families from 28 zip codes in Cook County.

CCW volunteers are sent monthly reminders on the Friday, a week before the next service opportunity. The first 5 to respond will represent the parish that month. Come, help feed our community and spend quality time with fellow CCW members.

Want to volunteer or have any questions? – Contact Sharon Bresnahan at [email protected] or (708) 383-3430 ext. 420 with any questions.